By: Ujjivan
Pair a dream with a microloan and you could discover a path to a greater life.
If you take a proper flip on the Nakhra junction on the busy Bhubaneshwar-Cuttack freeway, and journey one other two kilometers, you’ll come throughout Phulnakhra, a nondescript city about 20 kilometers from Bhubaneshwar, the capital of the Indian state of Odisha. It’s in cities like these that India’s conventional and world-renowned arts and handicrafts had been born centuries in the past, corresponding to pattachitra, a conventional portray model based mostly on Hindu mythology that the state of Odisha is understood for. These artists, often called chitrakaras, use solely pure colours created within the conventional method: grinding, boiling and filtering greens and minerals to provide the brilliance in hue related to the pattachitra.
As tastes in artwork have moved away from conventional handicrafts, many conventional artisans are giving up their craft to pursue extra profitable professions. So it comes as a little bit of a shock to search out Kalpana Moharana, a 24-year previous Phulnakhra native who needs to develop her pattachitra abilities additional and increase her enterprise.
Kalpana didn’t got down to be chitrakara. She has headed for the educated class, however her household’s monetary actuality proved an enormous barrier: their month-to-month family earnings of Rs.6000 (USD 93) is usually barely sufficient to assist their household of 4. Her father and brother earn this earnings by furnishings work whereas her mom and sister-in-law run the family. Kalpana is the youngest within the family and so her freedom was typically restricted by her household. However they had been supportive of her schooling—actually, she accomplished the matriculation examination to enter college in 2002. Nevertheless, given her household’s tough monetary circumstances, she needed to drop out of college shortly thereafter. Evidently, Kalpana was devastated.
Whereas she was serving to out within the family and doing odd jobs to assist the household earnings, Kalpana realized about pattachitra from conventional skilled artisans at Kendupitha, a close-by village. Steadily, she received extra within the work and began working with these artisans increasingly more. She picked up the abilities shortly and felt that she discovered a renewed goal to her life. Inside a yr of her coaching, Kalpana began engaged on her personal pattachitra designs from house.
The largest bills in pattachitra creation are the canvas bundles and the pure colours. For Kalpana, these common to about Rs.100 (USD 1.56)for every pattachitra. She took a mortgage from Ujjivan (one among their first shoppers within the space) with a view to buy the canvas in bulk to get higher charges. Right this moment, she has a mortgage of Rs.12,000 (USD 187.23) in her third yr with Ujjivan and her enterprise is flourishing: main shops in vacationer cities corresponding to Bhubaneshwar have been inserting orders for Kalpana’s pattachitras.
Right this moment, Kalpana earns about Rs.250-300 (USD 3.90-4.68) for every pattachitra she makes. She earns round Rs.3000 (USD 46.81) monthly from the gross sales of her pattachitras, half of what her father and brother used to earn! She is ready to assist herself and her household, and is reviving an almost-lost Indian custom on the similar time. Kalpana’s story is an inspiring reminder of how regardless of having one’s desires taken away, you possibly can nonetheless seize alternative and, with the assistance of a company like Ujjivan, make one other type of dream come true.
*Rupee to greenback quantities had been transformed utilizing June 12, 2015 international alternate charges
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